Weather Man

A man struggles to get a grip on a life that's spinning out of control in this emotional comedy drama. Dave Spritz (Nicolas Cage) is a television weatherman on a high-profile Chicago news program. Professionally, Dave is doing just fine -- he makes great money for a job that demands little effort, and he has a shot at an assignment with a network morning news and chat…
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Overview

A man struggles to get a grip on a life that's spinning out of control in this emotional comedy drama. Dave Spritz (Nicolas Cage) is a television weatherman on a high-profile Chicago news program. Professionally, Dave is doing just fine -- he makes great money for a job that demands little effort, and he has a shot at an assignment with a network morning news and chat show. But Dave's personal life leaves a lot to be desired -- his father, respected author Robert Spritzel (Michael Caine), is in failing health, he's divorced from his wife, Noreen (Hope Davis), and his relationship with his children is tenuous at best, especially his overweight daughter, Shelly (Gemmenne de la Pena). If Dave is to land his new job, he'll have to move to New York City, and with his time in Chicago running short, he dedicates himself to trying to salvage his ties with his family before it's too late, though he discovers this is even harder than he imagines.

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Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

There's something about Nicolas Cage's hangdog look that makes him particularly well suited to play downtrodden losers, and he has a real lulu in David Spritz, a Chicago weatherman whose life seems to be falling apart. Loved by some, he's reviled by others; while walking on the city streets David gets pelted with fast food with appalling frequency. He's separated from his neurotic wife (Hope Davis) and troubled children (Gemmenne de la Pena and Nicholas Hoult), who have very little use for him even when he's trying to be loving and supportive. Perhaps worst of all, David doesn't have the respect of the one man whose opinion he cherishes the most: his father, Robert (Michael Caine), a Pulitzer Prize-winning author slowly dying of cancer. The Weather Man was confusingly marketed and therefore never got much traction at the box office; audiences were led to believe the film was a comedy. And indeed, it is funny, albeit mordantly so. David is a pathetic figure above whom rain clouds always seem to hover (an apt metaphor, given his occupation), and there's a certain amount of humor in his well-intentioned but fruitless efforts to repair his broken family. Cage is able to convey, perhaps better than any other movie star of his generation, the fatalistic despondency of a man whose soul is crushed by the knowledge that, in any given venture, his best efforts will be doomed to failure. What's most amazing about The Weather Man is that its black-comedy tone is so ably sustained by director Gore Verbinski, best known for guiding the Pirates of the Caribbean screen franchise. He gives the film a look that matches its protagonist's frame of mind: grayish and cloudy. And he manages to elicit from the supporting players performances that subtly but perfectly reflect the attitudes of their characters. Caine, in particular, does a masterful job of conveying understated disappointment, regret, and resignation. It's not easy for a filmmaker to traffic in such emotions and still create an entertaining movie, but Verbinski has done it. And, after all, where does it say all comedies have to be breezy and uplifting?

All Movie Guide

Gore Verbinski is a rare entity in Hollywood -- a mainstream director who isn't pigeonholed into one genre. He made a distinctive imprint on horror (The Ring), adventure (Pirates of the Caribbean), and finally, the mid-budget melodrama The Weather Man. This adult coming-of-age tale is darkly funny, moving, and well acted, if too long and occasionally plodding and obvious. As the weatherman, Dave Spritz, Nicolas Cage wears the burden of his mid-life crises with stoic humor and doesn't resort to any breakdown histrionics to convey his inner angst. Hope Davis has carved out a nice serio-comedic niche as the exasperated wife (see also The Matador and American Splendor) and Michael Caine is especially spot-on as Spritz's patient, loving father. Using a blue-gray color scheme, cinematographer Phedon Papamichael captures the soul-taxing brutality of frigid Chicago winters and the emotional isolation of the characters. A subplot involving a pedophile stalking Spritz's son is ill-conceived and the attempts to draw a larger case for a modern American malaise drawn from fast food and fluff TV is overwrought. But overall the depiction of a man forced to confront middle-age disappointments and accept the routine difficulties of life is well done.